Dylan O’Brien on ‘Love and Monsters,’ ‘Teen Wolf’ and Life After His Devastating ‘Maze Runner’ Accident
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Dylan O’Brien didn’t expect to finish up his next movie “Infinite,” co-starring Mark Wahlberg, from the comfort of his own home. But there he was, holed up in his den completing ADR.
One of O’Brien’s friends came over when he to do some looping on a fight scene. For a good hour, his friend listened to him grunt, yell and make choking sounds into a recording system that the studio delivered to his house. “I have a terrible gag reflex so choking and ADR is always really hard for me, but also I think it’s effective because I really just go for it,” O’Brien says on Wednesday’s episode of the Variety and iHeart podcast “The Big Ticket.”
Eight months into the pandemic, O’Brien, best known for MTV’s “Teen Wolf” and the “Maze Runner” franchise, is still at home, this time promoting “Love and Monsters,” his new adventure film. He stars as a young man who goes looking for his high school sweetheart after spending seven years in an underground bunker because the world has been decimated by a “monsterpocalypse.”
“When I first read the script, I was like, ‘What the f— is this? This is great!’” O’Brien recalls. “I really loved it. I loved the humor in it, the characters, the worlds. I thought it was really unique and weird and funky and funny and sweet…and so good-natured.”
The movie, directed by Michael Matthews, wasn’t supposed to hit theaters until Valentine’s Day 2021, but Paramount decided to release it on VOD on Oct. 16.
It wasn’t that long ago when O’Brien thought he may leave the business. In 2016, he suffered traumatic injuries when he was hit by a stunt car while shooting the third and final film in the “Maze Runner” franchise. However, after several months of recovery, he went on to complete the film.
O’Brien is now, understandably, hyper-vigilant about safety on set. “Whenever I’m putting on a rig, I’m vetting every piece of that rig and much more,” he says.
But no matter how safe he may feel, O’Brien says, “Even to this day, if I’m on set and I’m doing a stunt, if I’m in a rig, if there’s some action going on, I am slightly irritable. There is a degree of anxiety in me that I don’t think there’s ever not going to be.”
His priorities in his personal life shifted, too. “I had friends that were so dear to me that I had felt that I had neglected for years,” O’Brien says. “All of a sudden, it was very important to me to nurture those relationships and not lose them. I think that it absolutely completely rewires and restructures the way you see your life and what you deem important.”
For “Teen Wolf” fans, O’Brien says he hasn’t been approached for any sort of reunion show (the series ended in 2017 after six years), but “I would jump at the chance to do any kind of thing. We’ll come back together for something at some point.”
You can listen the full interview with O’Brien above. You can also find “The Big Ticket” at iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
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